Rating: 
Summary: Exceeded my expectations; series just gets better
Review: I'll admit that I enjoyed the first movie edition of Tomb Raider, but wasn't blown away. It was very good, but not great. This second installment in the series (and I do hope this is a series) is absolutely fantastic. Think Indiana Jones and James Bond wrapped into a believable heroine expertly played by Angelina and terrific cast, effects, writing, and music. This movie met and exceeded every expectation and I tend to think is under-appreciated among the critics. We've enjoyed it and have watched many times over. Can't say that about all movies these days. Gerrard is excellent in his role. My only complaint is the ending, but I won't give that away. Not a bad ending, but would have preferred a certain character not be, well, eliminated. Watch it, you won't be disappointed. I am eager for the next!
Rating: 
Summary: The Cradle Will Fall
Review: When I saw the first Tomb Raider film, I remember feeling that, while Angelina Jolie had never looked better, and the action was well staged, it was just average in the end. Given that analysis, I decided to rent the second film, rather than purchase it...Adventurer Lara Croft returns, this time to stop maniacal Nobel Prize Winner Jonathan Reiss (Ciarán Hinds), from getting hold of Pandora's Box. The famed mythological object gives its possessor the power to unleash a deadly plaugue. Reiss believes that this is the only way to weed out the worst of the world's population. With fellow thrill seeker Gerard Butler (Terry Sheridan) not far from her side, Croft sets off to some exotic locales, like Hong Kong, Kenya, Tanzania, Greece and the Great Wall of China to find the box and save the world. This time, directing chores are handled by famed Speed and Twister helmer, Jan De Bont. Unfortunately, the sequel, like its forebearer, ends up as another average adventure film. The strength of the movie is of course Jolie, who knows how to look good while kicking serious butt, that's it though. The film does have cool action and all--but it doesn't amount to much as far as the story's concerned. The James Bond and Indiana Jones Trilogy do this kind of stuff much better. The DVD has a pretty good commentary by De Bont, despite my problems with the movie itself. There's are also 6 deleted scenes and an alternate ending, all with commentary by the director. As usual most of this stuff was wisely excised and wouldn't have improved things. There are five behind the scenes featurettes on the film's training, weapons and vehicles, visual effects, stunts and scoring. Most of this is your standard Electronic Press Kit style hockum. You also get to see actor Gerard Butler's screen test, music videos by Korn and The Davey Brothers, who are featured on the film's soundtrack, and the original theatrical Web-Site archive in DVD-ROM form. Topping off the disc are trailers for the film Paycheck and The Indiana Jones DVD Collection. Tomb Raider 2 is watchable but may mean more to you if you are a fan of the video game that started it all
Rating:
Summary: Not big on brains but big where it counts!
Review: What can I say, Angelina Jolie is HOTT!!! This movie isn't particularly original, but I think it deserves 5 stars for the simple fact of the eye candy.
Rating: 
Summary: My first time with Lara
Review: I was trying to rent the Tomb Raider One dvd from Blockbuster before going to see the second Lara Croft.
But no luck, all Tomb Raider rental were all out for the weekend, and eventually, I just cann't wait. Saw it on Saturday at Coliseum. My impression for the first Lara Croft movie wasn't that big hit. So I didn't bring much expectation into the threater for Croft 2. Surprisely, it's a pretty good movie, very exciting all the way to the ending. No boring nor 'talking-too-much' scenes. The plot is good, fighting is fabulous, sound effect is incredible! Only a small tiny disappointment was the character played by Simon Yam didn't last long. Overall, highly recommended. Definitely good fun for 2 hours.
Rating: 
Summary: Total crap, lousy action and no story movie.
Review: Total crap movie with lousy action. All action is like circus show. I wish I would read the review before wasting money on this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Lara Croft Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life
Review: I understand that the Lara Croft movies and characters within are based on a game. The powers that be in the movie industry have evidently run out of talented writers or ideas that justify making a movie worth watching. Angelina Jolie may or may not be a talented actress, you can't tell from this movie. It's too bad she has so litlle quality material to chose from. If this movie is based on the game then the plot and action came from a novice player with no skill who hasn't got past 1st level. Spend your money more wisely, say on a game of putt-putt. More exciting and memorable. Luckily, I rented it. I should have known better when this movie was one of the few new releases at the video store with copies left on the shelf on Friday night.
John Row
Rating:
Summary: So, what does the Rape of Entertainment feel like?
Review: You know, I can take a lot of crap. I can look at a flawed movie, scrape away the muck and find entertainment (hell, I even loved Waterworld!). I can usually find a piece of what the filmmakers were trying to achieve. Jan De Bont's directorial career has required A LOT of that from me. Which I don't mind. I'm happy to do a bit of the leg work to be entertained. I loved Speed. Ignored the characters and had a blast with Speed 2. Jumped over the plot holes and got caught up in the chase with Twister. I was with The Haunting right up until before the end. But, with Tomb Raider 2 (I'm not spelling out the entire title, that would take too long. Actually, in the time it takes me to type this, I could have written out the title several times over. Oh well), I lost my patience altogether.
Sitting in the cinema, I grew very angry. If I had C4 strapped to my chest, that cinema would have had a Red Alert situation on their hands (kidding, Mr. FBI. Loosen up, dude).
I loved the original. I saw it was flawed, but how can you not have fun in that flick (providing you neatly fall into that demographic)? A very charismatic and sexy lead actress. Spectacular action set pieces. Two big guns and the boobs to match. The perfect formula. How do you drop the ball on that one?!
Enter De Bont. If there was anything wrong with the first one, it was too much spiritual and relationship crap. So, what do they do here, take out the action and add MORE spiritual and relationship crap. And the action that is there, lets slow it down, so nobody can possibly get any kind of excitement from it.
For me, this movie had NO redeeming features. That opening shark fight was the epitome of RIDUCULOUS. Why did she have to cut herself agian to get the sharks attention? What, the massive stab wound in her leg wasn't enough? And why did it kindly escort her to the surface? Why didn't other sharks get attracted to the blood and finish her off in the THREE DAYS she was marooned, feet dangling in the water? Come on!!
The much publicized bike ride on the Great Wall of China was NOTHING. She's not being chased. There's no danger. It lasts only 5 seconds. When will these hack directors learn, a stunt man doing an incredible stunt (or in this case CG), does not a great action scene make. Put a guy behind her with an automatic weapon (which would have fitted into the "story") for God's sake.
Countless times this movie let me down on the action side. The parachute jump that was filmed in one shot from fifty freaking miles off so there is no way we could get a feel of the rush those guys must of had. TERRIBLE!
Jan appears to be the kind of guy who gets a hard on for parachutes opening. The amount of time spent watching parachutes open in this movie could perhaps have been better spent extending some of the fights. Why does the boring parachute jump and a trek through Africa get extended screen time and the only potentially good action sequences get reduced to mere seconds?! UNFORGIVABLE.
But it's not just the big things that make this movie retch-worthy. This is the kind of B-grade bad flick that EVERY SINGLE TIME a boat passes across the screen, it sounds it's horn. When traveling through Africa, bring out the stock footage of EVERY SINGLE SPECIES on the continent. Not one shot is without some kind of wildlife.
And why hasn't De Bont learnt that CG just isn't scary?! (save for Shelob) BOO!!
And drop the coutries!! Too many! That time could hev been spent on a decent action scene!
The more I think of this movie, the more I hate it! HATE IT!!!
The only two good things in this movie should have been Angelina's breasts (but even the exposition on those is virtually non-existent). However, it is a kid in the elevator and SpoungeBob Squarepants. $130 million dollar budget and the best things in it have a height restriction??!!
What the producers of this show need to keep foremost in their attention, is this one simple, yet gravely important fact - IT'S BASED ON A VIDEO GAME!!! You're not trying to adapt a Jane Austin bestseller here! You're priorities are all wrong!
So the first one got crapped on by every critic under the sun. So what? The ones who count (core audience) liked it. They're the ones whose money you want. So when a sequel comes around, why listen to the ones who don't even pay for their movie ticket and chuck in all that [gag] depth, totally alienating your target audience, and causing your company to lose a heap of dough. Oh, but the critics liked it better! Success!!
Bimbos.
Rating:
Summary: Can you say Misandrist (one who hates men)
Review: Misandrist is the female counterpart for misogynist, and this is Lara Croft. Who kills her male partner who saved her life no less than a half dozen times during the film (some gratitude hmm?) And treats all men with contempt and vile as if she were on some vendetta against all men (so have a sex change already). Her acting is all smugness and bad attitude as if that is a substitute for good acting qualities, and the half baked plot gets all the Greek mythology wrong of course.
At least with Charlies Angels the ludicrous fight scenes are an obvious joke, here Angelina Jolie's battles are just as ludicrous but we are supposed to believe them as real- I don't think so!
Rating:
Summary: A monument to wasted star-power.
Review: It takes a stunning amount of ineptitude to take two incredibly appealing actors like Angelina Jolie and Gerard Butler and make a dull movie with them. And LARA CROFT, TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE is a dull movie. The TOMB RAIDER videogame franchise should have made an easy transition to the big screen. Big action, exotic locales and a touch of the fantastic made the Indiana Jones movies three of the most popular films of all time, and these are present in abundance in the games. For some reason, however, two directors have failed to make good on these solid moviemaking elements. Director Simon West did a terrific job of showcasing the always-appealing Jolie in the first film, but the script (which West co-wrote) was so haphazardly structured and populated with such poorly realized characters that it was more tiresome than anything else. Unfortunately, CRADLE OF LIFE director Jan de Bont didn't seem to have learned from his predecessor's mistakes. CRADLE OF LIFE isn't as lifeless as the first film. In fact, it's crammed with action scenes, but the cumulative effect is that of a movie that's overstuffed, but underdone. Lara Croft is on the trail of Pandora's Box, racing against a villainous mastermind cipher played by the talented, but underused, Ciaran Hinds. CRADLE OF LIFE raced from one corner of the globe to the next without time for a breath, or much thought. Along the way, Lara picks up an old flame, Terry Sheridan, played by up-and-coming leading man Gerard Butler. Jolie and Butler look terrific together, and when they have a chance to act, there's a glimpse of what a good movie CRADLE OF LIFE could have been if the filmmakers weren't so dead-set on numbing the audience with set-piece after set-piece. It doesn't help that Jan de Bont apparently doesn't know how to shoot an action scene in anything but slow-motion close-up, so it's almost impossible to tell what's going on half the time. Jolie and Butler are reduced to running, jumping and rolling around as glass explodes around them, looking good, but robbed of context. With a couple of action sequences set in Hong Kong, one wishes that, while they were there, the production could have picked up a more skilled action director like Ringo Lam or Tsui Hark. The film plays out much like the last disappointing Bond outing, DIE ANOTHER DAY: it's all supposed to be thrilling, but it really isn't. CRADLE OF LIFE invites the Bond comparison with all its talk of MI6 (Bond's agency), and the world-beating bad guy at the heart of the movie's troubles. It says a great deal about CRADLE OF LIFE's hand-me-down feel, however, that the villain maintains his high-tech lair in the middle of a Chinese shopping mall. What's saddest about CRADLE OF LIFE is that it has so much star power that it really should work. As mentioned, Jolie and Butler are a perfect couple: good-looking, talented, and believable when pulling off action heroics. The supporting cast features Hong Kong star Simon Yam, who is as charismatic as ever. So why does the whole thing feel so darned lifeless? The last thing one should want to do when watching an action movie is check the time, but CRADLE OF LIFE is so yawn-worthy that one can't help it. If there's another tomb to be raided, let's hope the filmmakers find a good script inside.
Rating:
Summary: amazing DVD
Review: i advice u to buy it... so exciting and thrilling.... this is Joliw as Lara
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